Texas Kills Solar Bill on Last-Minute Motion

By Russell Gold

The sun isn’t shining in Texas this morning.

Is Texas afraid of the sun demon?

A bill in the Texas legislature to create a $500 million rebate program for utility-scale and small-scale solar installations – and jumpstart a Texas solar industry – died late on Friday night on a procedural maneuver. Several people who followed the bill closely said it wasn’t voted down on the merits. It was derailed on a picayune legislative point about whether two bills should be melded together. The point, raised by Houston Democrat Sylvester Turner, was turned away, but by then it was too late. The clock had run out. In all likelihood, this means the Lone Star State won’t be able to create any solar incentives until 2011.

Solar boosters are worried about the message this will send. “We will lose out on talent and manufacturing because the industry will either not locate in Texas or relocate to other states that have legislative support,” says Raymond Walker, general counsel of Standard Renewable Energy, a Houston company that installs solar panels for homes and businesses.

The death of the bill was unexpected because it had strong support on both sides of the aisle – from rural Republicans such as bill sponsor Sen. Troy Fraser who saw the economic uplift created by wind farms in West Texas to urban Democrats would were in favor the idea of boosting solar-installation jobs. The fate of the bill is also surprising because Texas’ effort several years ago to create a wind industry has been so successful.

Still, despite the darkness that has descended on solar’s Texas backers, some say there is reason to be positive. “What is interesting and what matters to us is that the chair of the Texas Business & Commerce Committee (Sen. Fraser) was the first person to introduce a solar bill,” says Kari Smith, public affairs director for solar manufacturer SunPower Corp.

“It is not business as usual in Texas anymore. We’ve gone beyond this [as a] environmental versus big business issue,” says Ms. Smith, pointing out that the bill had support from an ad-hoc coalition called Texas High-Tech for Solar that included Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Texas Instruments Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and General Electric Co.

Proving her point, Jim Marston, head the state chapter of Environmental Defense, bemoaned the death of the solar bill thusly: “We are going to lose a bunch of jobs to other states. We are going to lose all those installation jobs, the kind of jobs that cannot be exported to China and India. And we’re not going to get the clean-air benefit.”

“This was simply bad luck,” says Steve Taylor, a member of the Solar Alliance and executive with Applied Material Inc. “Circumstances and procedural motions.” He said solar boosters will meet soon to discuss ways forward, pointing out that the bill passed the state senate on a 26-4 vote.

The $500 million would have been funded by a statewide charge of electricity bills.

Comments (5 of 24)

Marketing for Introverts: The Introvert's Guide to Customer Relationships and Two-Way Loyalty

You probably wouldn't expect a topic as nerdy as email list maintenance to have an introvert dimension, but after an eye-opening exchange on a colleague's blog, I believe that's the case.My colleague mentioned that she periodically purges her email list of those who have not opened her emails or clicked on any of her links for several months. She said this is what leading Internet marketers taught her to do.As an introvert, I don't care what leading anythings recommend. I compare it to my experience and inner truths, and I know this advice is wrong.Two years ago, I got dropped from this colleague's email list. Maybe it was because there was a stretch of time when I wasn't reading any newsletters because I was too busy with an intense project. Yet that did not indicate true disinterest on my part. I have followed her for more than a decade, recommended her site countless times and done a few joint projects with her. When I got bumped off the list, I believed it happened because of a technical glitch. Now I see a gulf in expectations about relationships.Introverts are people who are not constantly standing up and waving their arms, "Look at me! Look at me!" We don't need our friends to wave back. We don't measure friends by how often we interact. We can maintain an attitude of liking and respect while rarely speaking up or directly reacting ourselves. We can maintain deep friendships in which long periods of time go by with no contact.Indeed, if my best friends (of 20+ years) shut me out because they hadn't heard from me in a few months, I would have no best friends at all. I'm glad that print magazines I subscribe to have no way of knowing that I might let them pile up for months, then read through them one after another during a weekend!I never assume that someone who did not wish to hear from me over a stretch of time never wanted to hear from me again - unless they tell me so. If that's true for personal relationships, it's just as true for business relationships. That's why I wouldn't clean my list in the way my colleague described. Someone who took the step of opting in to your list did so in good faith, with the expectation of being able to hear from you for a long time without anything being required in return. Those who opted in therefore deserve your continued respect.I wonder how many other experts have shut me off from communication because they had the mistaken impression that I wasn't paying attention. Keep in mind that any attention, even if it's occasional or rare, can leadf to referrals, sales, influence and all the other goodies marketers strive for.As an introvert, when you weigh marketing advice against what you feel in your bones to be true and act accordingly, you become stronger and more effective. Always. Don't just take my word for that, of course!

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It's really disturbing that an elected official would derail such an important bill that enjoyed such widespread support on both sides of the aisle. Mr. Turner, what on earth were you thinking? Surely you knew the clock was ticking -- and you blew it for Texas until 2011. "Thanks."

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Environmental Capital provides daily news and analysis of the shifting energy and environmental landscape. The Wall Street Journal’s Keith Johnson is the lead writer. Environmental Capital is led by Journal energy reporter Russell Gold, and includes contributions from other writers at the Journal, WSJ.com, and Dow Jones Newswires. Write us at environmentalcapital@wsj.com.